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E-News Bulletin Friday, 11 May 2012

Adidas Refuses to Pay Indonesian Workers €1.4M as company posts Highest Share Price since 1995adidas’s track record is dismal: over 10,000 workers from other closed adidas supplier factories, including at PT Spotec and PT Dong Joe, were never paid the severance they were owed, and six years later, the company has failed to ensure that a majority of them are rehired. adidas has also been under fire this week for failing to address extensive workers’ rights violations in Olympic production sites,

Double Standards Against Change in Bahrain: Interview with Maryam al-Khawajaby Marc BotengaProtests against the Formula One Grand Prix held in Manama on 22 April could have reminded the world that repression in Bahrain is still ongoing. But once more the so-called international community by and large turned a blind eye: no diplomatic pressure, certainly no "crippling" international sanctions. The Grand Prix went ahead as planned. A firebomb thrown by Bahraini protesters, however, caused US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland to ask for "demonstrators' restraint in ensuring that they are peaceful." The contrast with Syria, where Western politicians systematically downplay violence by the Syrian opposition, and some even talk of offering military support to the Free Syrian Army, could hardly be larger.

Labour and economic reform in CubaIn this week’s GLC article, David Espina, Anamary Linares and Oscar Estrada discuss the challenges associated with the reforms initiated by Raul Castro in Cuba. These challenges largely stem from the government’s attempt to scale down the public sector, which employs most Cubans. Integrating the workers who will be shed during this process into the private sector is proving to be very difficult, due to operating constraints, the oligopolistic structure of the private sector, and the lack of coordination between the public and private sector.

The choice of François Hollande over Nicolas Sarkozy was an extreme case of the lesser of two evils. Seldom has a winning candidate inspired so little enthusiasm. Considering how unpopular Sarkozy was, according to polls, the final vote of 51.6% for Hollande to 48.4% for Sarkozy was surprisingly close. Voting for the bland and inoffensive Hollande was finally the only way to get rid of the agitated Sarkozy, aggressively pretending to be President of France.

US Bosses At Amazon Asking Job Seeker For W-2 Or Tax ReturnIn a weak job market, employers have been asking job applicants for a lot of new information about themselves including, in some cases, their social media passwords.Read report on:http://www.sfgate.com/pender/

Talking with the Press about the Working ClassOver the last three months, I have done interviews with and provided assistance to dozens of national and international reporters about various working-class issues, including the American Dream, manufacturing, education, the recession, displaced workers, local and international trade, and, of course, white working-class voting patterns.

Human race being terminated by 'scientific suicide'Mike AdamsIn the realm of human biology, our very existence is now being widely threatened bytoxic vaccines. Always promoted in the name of “science,” these vaccines actually cause severe neurological damage and widespread infertility, compromising the ability of members of the human race to reproduce.

In Eye On The Money, I recorded that ANC intelligence operatives back in 1999 informed me that “the arms deal was just the tip of the iceberg that concerned oil deals, the taxi recapitalisation process, tollroads, drivers’ licences, Cell C, the Coega development, diamond and drug smuggling, weapons trafficking and money laundering. The common denominator, they added, was kickbacks to the ANC in return for political protection.”